Animal rescuers see problems caused by rental housing shortage

The women behind Rescue, Revive, Rehome animal rescue service - from left, Siobhan Mikaere, Rowan Elliott and Jennie Dryden. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

A lack of rental accommodation is having a knock-on effect on people's pets.
Jennie Dryden is one of three women who run Rescue, Revive, Rehome (RRR) animal rescue service.

She says the trio - herself and Siobhan Mikaere from Te Puke, and Pyes Pa's Rowan Elliott - have found rehoming animals ''quite an undertaking'' since they teamed up at the start of the year.

The reason Jennie got involved was because she saw a shortage of groups and organisations helping find new homes for abandoned or surrendered animals.

''Obliviously there are other rescues and the SPCA - but there's a shortfall,'' she says.

She says the current housing situation has worsened the situation as people struggle to find rental properties where pets are allowed.

''The housing situation's gone a bit crazy in that respect - people have got pets, cats, dogs, and can't get a house.''

A couple who recently surrendered their pet had been living in a car because they were unable to find a house.

''So [what we are doing] is important because there are so many animals and they are being put down or put out on the street.''

Jennie, Siobhan and Rowan got together by chance.

''Rowan was running her own rescue called Rowan's Rescues and Siobhan had started triple R,'' says Jennie.

''Siobhan had gone to get some kittens from Rowan to adopt and they basically decided to go together and a few weeks later I picked up some kittens from Rowan and said 'do you want any help' and she said 'yep', and two weeks after that I was doing all the cat and kitten adoptions from my house.''

Siobhan looks after the dog adoptions side of RRR and Rowan looks after other animals.

''She takes in the mums and babies and sick animals and Siobhan keeps the puppies - and we have fosterers as well.''

Rowan is also a bit of a goat expert - rescuing male goats that would otherwise be killed. It's not just felines, canines and goats RRR cares for, there have also rescued, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks and rats.

''Every animal that needs help, we would take in - although we try and make sure people have already made an effort to rehome them themselves, otherwise its not fair on us,'' says Jennie.

When they can afford to, they also trap and desex feral cats.

RRR recently held a successful adoption day.

''The adoption day was fantastic. Over 11 cats went and since then another four or five and three puppies - which is fantastic because we've got lots of puppies at the moment.''

Jennie says just looking after animals can be expensive, but they are desexed prior to adoption - another expense - and if they are sick and need vet treatment, then costs can skyrocket.

''Unless we get donations from people in money or stuff, then we literally have to pay it out of our own pockets. We get no funding, we are relying on people's donations for food or money, or to pay straight to the vet sometimes, which is awesome because it is the biggest outlay.''

If money issues aren't enough to content with, sometimes people are the problem.

''We all have jobs or study or families and it takes a lot of time - we get hundreds of messages every day and people expect us to miraculously sort out their animal problems, but we're just people doing our best basically.

''All of the animals pretty much come to us in a bad way and we have to get them back to health the best we can with the money and the time we have. People sometimes expect them to be pedigree-bred animals and they're not.''

She says sometimes people don't understand that.

''But most people are lovely,'' she says.

As well as donations, RRR are always keen to hear from willing fosterers - they can be contacted through their Facebook page.